Klosterman Eulogized as Greatest of Friends

An impressive lineup of sports and political dignitaries were among the 1,500 who said goodbye to former Los Angeles Ram general manager Don Klosterman in a two-hour funeral service Monday at the Sacred Heart Chapel on the Loyola Marymount campus.

Klosterman, 70, died Wednesday of heart failure, six weeks after major heart surgery.

Among those giving eulogies were Sen. Ted Kennedy, former presidential candidate Jack Kemp, Bill Walsh, Frank Gifford and Al Michaels.

Also in attendance were Ethel Kennedy, her daughter Courtney Kennedy Hill, Joe Namath, who flew in from Florida, Al Davis, and Vin Scully, whose wife Sandi was Klosterman’s assistant with the Rams in the 1970s.

Others included actor Robert Wagner, former Times editor-in-chief Bill Thomas, cartoonist Paul Conrad, basketball coaching great Pete Newell, former CBS golf producer Frank Chirkinian, Kansas City Chief owner Lamar Hunt, Chief president Carl Peterson, Pete Rozelle’s daughter Ann and his brother Dick.

Former Ram players in attendance included Pat Haden, Vince Ferragamo, Wendell Tyler, Bob Klein and Rich Saul. Former Ram coach Harland Svare and longtime Ram executive Jack Faulkner were also there.

Ted Kennedy, in his eulogy, said, “There is a single word that best describes Don, and that word is ‘friendship.’ Don was a great friend to three generations of Kennedys, including my brothers John and Bobby.”

Kennedy said when his niece Courtney was wed in 1993 to Paul Hill, Klosterman gave her away.

“We love you Don, we miss you and always will,” Kennedy said.

The tributes had their light moments too, a reflection of Klosterman’s great sense of humor.

“He would just walk into a room, and it was electric,” Kennedy said. “He had a way of making everyone laugh.

“I remember one of the last times I saw Don he said, ‘Ted, I think you’ve lost some weight.’ As I was feeling quite good about that, he said, ‘Wait, turn around.’ So I did and he said, ‘Oh, I see where you found it.’ ”

Gifford recalled that the starting backfield for the West team in the 1951 East-West Shrine Game in San Francisco included Klosterman, who starred at Loyola, himself, Ollie Matson, and Hugh McElhenny. Gifford, Matson and McElhenny are all NFL Hall of Famers.

“We lost the game, so afterward, Don is talking to the press, and Don being Don, said, ‘We would have won if I’d had a little help,’ and then looked over and winked.”

Michaels noted Klosterman’s great wit and recalled a chance meeting in Chicago in 1980.

“I was there to announce a baseball game for ABC with Howard Cosell, and there in the Ritz Carlton bar is Cosell talking with Don, who just happened to be in Chicago. Cosell is talking and Don is nodding his head. Don looked over at me and said, ‘Hey, Al, want to come over here and help me listen to Cosell?’ ”

Even Father Patrick J. Cahalan, associate chancellor at Loyola who presided over the service, got into the act.

“I once invited Don to a retreat,” he said. “Don said, ‘I’m not retreating, I’m advancing.’ ”

Said Gifford: “I think Father Cahalan may be auditioning for ‘Monday Night Football.’ ”

Gifford also said, “Having Don as a friend is one of life’s great blessings.”

Others giving eulogies were Don’s brother James--there were 15 siblings in the family--and longtime friend Ted Forstmann of New York.

They all talked about Klosterman’s spirit, sense of humor and courage. He survived a serious 1957 skiing accident and was able to walk even though doctors said he never would.

Unable to attend the service was Steve Young, who played for the Los Angeles Express of the USFL when Klosterman was the president of the team. Young, who officially retired from football in a ceremony at Santa Clara on Monday, had this to say about his friend:

“The Duke of Bel-Air [actually his nickname was the Duke of Del Rey but Bel-Air works too]--he was the best. He was a dandy, and a football man. I learned professional football right there. I can’t tell you how grateful I am for Don and I’m sorry to see his passing.”

“I wish I could be there. But this is the way things worked out, my feelings go out to his family.”

The underlying theme of the service was all the close friends Klosterman had made over the years.

And at a wake at the Bel-Air Country Club that followed, the recent Times story on Klosterman’s death was enlarged and embedded in a large ice statue that stood in the middle of the room. The headline said, “City Loses One of Its Best Friends.”